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Safin slams Agassi for betraying ATP over drugs
The ATP kept Andre Agassi’s secret, says Marat Safin. So why does he need to be so cruel with it?
Former world number one tennis player Marat Safin has added his voice to the widespread condemnation of Andre Agassi for the American's revelation that he lied to avoid a ban following a positive drugs test in 1997.
However, what seems to have irked the Russian is not the possibility that Agassi might have gained an advantage by taking drugs - nor even that he escaped a ban. Safin is upset that Agassi betrayed the ATP's confidence.
Agassi wrote in his new autobiography Open that he had taken crystal meth to wind down. When he subsequently failed a drugs test, he successfully persuaded the Association of Tennis Professionals that he had taken the banned substance by accident, avoiding a ban.
Now Safin has told L'Equipe that Agassi ought to "give his titles, his money and his Grand Slam titles" back. "You know, the ATP has a bank account and he can give the money back if he wants," he added.
Safin, who won the US Open in 2000 and the Australian Open in 2005, argued: "The ATP kept his secret. Why does he need to be so cruel with it? There are times you need to be able to shut up. What's done is done. Does he hope to sell more books? It's absolutely stupid."
The 29-year-old Russian will retire after this week's Paris Masters, but has no intention of following Agassi's example and writing a book: "Me, I don't need money." ·
